10: The Honors Student Murder & the Wrongful Conviction of Lamonte McIntyre

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Brandi starts us off with a story about 17-year-old honors student Syndi Bierman, who was murdered during a robbery gone wrong. At least… that’s what her sister said. When Syndi’s sister Shari called 911, she reported that their house had been robbed. But Shari’s story raised a lot of eyebrows. Including ours.

Then Kristin talks about the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre. When 18-year-old McIntyre was accused of a double murder, he wasn’t too worried. He was innocent. He had a good alibi. He had no motive, and the prosecution had no evidence. But the jury convicted him anyway. McIntyre spent 23 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Get ready to pull your hair out with frustration. This story has corruption at every turn.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“No Justice,” Kansas City Star
“Kansas man wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years receives no compensation from state,” CBS News
“23 Years for Murder. He Didn’t Do it. What Went Wrong?” New York Times
“Lamonte McIntyre, wrongly imprisoned for 23 years for double murder, finally set free,” Kansas City Star
“Lamonte McIntyre,” Midwest Innocence Project
“Former Lamonte McIntyre prosecutor accused in new case of threatening a witness, misconduct,” Kansas City Star

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“State v. Bierman” Kansas Supreme Court appeal opinion
“2 Slaying Suspects Sought” Associated Press, The Oklahoman
“Woman Says She Hid While Sister Killed” Associated Press, Salina Journal
“Kansas Fugitive Surrenders” by Joe Stumpe, Tulsa World